 Welcome into the original gangsters podcast. This is another quick hitter edition. I'm Scott Bernstein We're going to go over some breaking news out of New York City and the Genovese crime family the Westside This past week in federal court out of Manhattan. We had three pretty major players and in the Genovese organization sentenced to prison for a Spring spring 2002 racketeering bus sports gambling Extortion there might have been some loan sharking. I'm not positive But it took down two copos and then a soldier that was Sentenced this week and then another handful of guys behind them, but you know the three biggest names in this bust Were you know Nikki slash? Khaleesi 64 year old coppo Ralph the undertaker balsamo who I Would say up-and-comer at at 51 52 years old But he's been you know on the radar for at least 15 20 years So if people have been paying attention, he's a guy that you might have known about but now seems like his stars beginning to rise and then a fast-rising soldier John Campanella so Balsamo got the harshest sentence three years Nikki Khaleesi got two years and John John Campanella got one year Seems like you know slaps on the wrist for federal investigation that was For all intents and purposes up and running for a decade It got more focused in the last you know in the late 2010s until the bus came down in April 22, but It had been being built in one way or the other since the early 2010s and Nikki slash Khaleesi is a as a guy that's kind of been a sleeper We didn't really know a lot about him until this bus came down and He's a Bronx guy that runs all of the Genovese rackets in South Florida His kind of right hand is this John Campanella 48 years old who's a soldier and has a lineage in the Genovese organization and according to Sentencing reports and court records Campanella Very trusted by Nikki slash and Nikki slash users Campanella as a liaison to other New York mafia families Campanella's dad is a button in in the Genovese and his uncle is deceased Genovese Capo Louis Mosquitello who flipped at the end of his mob career and was on the verge of testifying in Court in a labor racketeering case and died in prison of national natural causes He had been the Genovese Point man in the Bronx for Local politics. He actually ran for city council at one point in the early 80s, but his his real legacy in the mob Uncle Louis for for John was He was a major construction labor racketeer in the drywall industry the cement industry and Controlled a lot of that stuff in like three of the three of the boroughs. So This is a guy that that Nikki slash Has a lot of confidence in but in terms of kind of name recognition Even though he was probably the number two defendant in the case was Ralph balsamo the under the undertaker His nickname comes from the fact that he owns a funeral home in in the Bronx He is allegedly close or very close to the boss Barney Balomo the right now is you know, this is the top guy in in In the Big Apple right now probably across all the five families. He's the number one boss amongst bosses Just incredibly smart feared respected stealth and and Balomo has been in his Good graces for 20 years or so. They went down in the 2006 racketeering bust and together where Balsamo actually ended up doing more time. I believe then Then Barney or at least they did pretty Similar sentences despite one being at that point. Maybe not even a soldier, but possibly a soldier And Barney at that point was a Acting boss or boss. He became an acting boss in the late 90s He in Terms of Ralph balsamo what I hear is Barney looks at him as a future administrator He's a guy that's very well connected Rackets in in the Bronx rackets in Manhattan rackets out in the suburbs, Westchester and One thing that was of note in the sentencing report With balsamo first they showed evidence of Balsamo's proximity to Barney with a photo That popped up online, then it popped up with Jerry Kapasi and gang and news Then it makes its way into the court record which was a photo that was snapped of a group of Genovese guys at Barney Balomo's 65th birthday party and only a year or two ago and Ralph Ralph balsamo was in that photo. They wanted to show What kind of weight he had by by running with was someone like Barney and Then there was also a Situation that was Layed out where it kind of reminded me of an episode of Sopranos where when Christopher Maltesante becomes a made guy those first couple months or It might have been within a Go within the timeline of the show it might have been a couple episodes after he was made not positive But I if you remember there was a whole Storyline where he was getting stuck with the bill everywhere They went and he was getting sick of it and he would complain to Tony about it at one point him and Paulie ended up getting to a huge fight over it and There was an incident that happened it back in the fall of 2019 when an underling of of balsamos and Nikki Khaleesi's what Didn't pay for the lunch that they had had together and was chastised For only well, I should say he paid for balsamo But didn't pay for Nikki Khaleesi who was the higher ranking Genovese at that point And he was told as they there was a wire It sounds like it was in a carb. Maybe it was in a social club. Maybe someone was wearing it. I don't know but right after The The lunch this guy was told, you know, you made a mistake By not showing Nikki slash the requisite respect that he deserved and that you were catering more to Ralph balsamo instead of Nikki slash He said he didn't understand it. He said I I don't know Nikki. I know Ralph. That's why I paid for Ralph This guy is like no Nikki's the guy you got to worry about and if you pay for Ralph You got to pay for Nikki. It's a bad look if you don't do it. This guy ends up texting Balsamo asking balsamo in the text if he offended Nikki Khaleesi and and balsamo eased his Concerns and said no, I don't think Nikki was aware of what's going on. It's okay But it was it was funny that they put that in there and then another thing that I Noticed by reading some of the sentencing reports and court files was that the span of this investigation is a nice lens into Ralph balsamo who went from a Soldier at the beginning of the investigation to an acting cop. Oh To a point where I think he was in prison for a couple years came back out became a full-fledged cop. Oh so you kind of see his rise in the organization the lens of this bust and then I'll end I'll end this on on this note that Sometimes people wonder how much attention the wise guys themselves pay to what's being written or said about them reported about them and with Ralph balsamo in a I Think it was a 10-month time frame it might have been longer or shorter, but in a certain amount of time between I believe 2019 and in 2020 Or maybe it was between 21 and 22 I Apologize for not being zeroed in on the specifics, but when the feds Took his they took ten phones of his he had ten phones which he was communicating with and on one of these phones. There was like Dozen Google searches that were like Ralph balsamo and mob Ralph balsamo and Genevieve's crime family Ralph balsamo and Barney Balomo So he was doing a lot of googling of himself so They're they're headed to prison for You know, it's kind of a cup of coffee If you get three-year sentence, you're gonna be a home in two years into a halfway house The guy that's doing a year John Campanella He'll do probably six months eight months and hit a halfway house Nikki slash will do a year and a half then hit a halfway house. So I don't really see this Tripping them up. In fact, I kind of wonder you spent ten years in this investigation And these are the top guys and the most you're gonna do is send send these guys away for two three years It seems like it seems a bit futile So, uh, that's the quick hitter update on the Genevieve's crime family the cases that just came down the sentences That just came down. I'm Scott Bernstein for Benny behind the glass and for Jimmy He'll be back on the full full length episode this week. I say og pod out